The Heifer Project, recently renamed Heifer International, aims to eradicate global hunger and poverty by using the multiplier effect to empower individuals, families, and communities. The approach is simple: Rather than give milk to a starving child, give a cow to the family. A heifer is a young female cow that has yet to deliver her first calf. When she gives birth, the family who initially received the heifer must promise to pass on the offspring to another needy family in the community. This continues until, it is hoped, hunger and poverty are eliminated.

The idea began during the Spanish Civil War in 1938, when American missionary Dan West served rations of milk to starving children in war-ravaged Spain. As he watched the containers of milk ...